Roblox is likely one of the closest things to an actual "metaverse" that exists right now. An extensible world, where anyone can add/program in locations and experiences, is the truly transformative part of media like Ready Player One.
This, and it's also about the worst version of metaverse that could possibly exist: a total company town where everything is proprietary and owned by the company.
Related, regarding Roblox's creator program (where third-party devs, including kids, can (try to) earn money by generating the content that brings users to Roblox in the first place):
> Most of Roblox’s userbase is under 18, with about a third between 9 and 12. Emil, 11, tells People Make Games that he “saw other developers getting money in a way that looked easy.” It wasn’t easy. To withdraw money earned through microtransactions in a game, a developer must earn a minimum of 100,000 Robux, the platform’s in-game currency. Buying 100,000 Robux through Roblox’s store costs $1,000. Selling 100,000 Robux back to Roblox earns you just $350. Withdrawal is not even possible unless these developers pay a five-dollar monthly fee for a Roblox Premium Subscription. (Second Life and Entropia Universe, which also allow players to sell items, respectively have $10 and $100 minimums for withdrawing money.)
Roblox is an under appreciated way to get kids in to coding. Both of my kids learned to write software making Roblox games in Lua, both went to college for CS and ended up writing software for a career. My youngest is currently making more money from his Roblox games as a side gig than he does from his day job!
This is a bad idea because it's going to tempt more kids to get into VR and there's a good body of evidence that their eyes are not ready to be messed with in the ways that VR tends to do.
Is there actually evidence of this? The last I looked manufacturers said it’s not for use under the age of 13 due to caution, not backed by actual evidence.
The only things I know about Roblox is it's mainly aimed at children and the people who prey on children. I've never heard one of my friends talk about playing it or have any interest in it.
Am I way off base here or is that other people's view or experience of it?
The idea of it interests me and from what I know it's sort of a Minecraft meets endless mods-type of thing which is appealing to me overall (new Minecraft isn't interesting to me but the original was something I loved). I feel like if I were (much) younger Roblox might be where I spend an unhealthy amount of time but as it stands now it doesn't seem like a place for me.
The Minecraft comparison is really good. Roblox is for kids. That audience of children attracts seedy actors who want to make money.
I’d like to draw an analogy from redstone (Minecraft’s imitation of circuitry) to the ability to create games in Roblox. Both are incredibly accessible to beginners. Both can be a learning rabbit hole. And I think both have flowering communities of creators pushing each other forward.
I think today Roblox doesn’t need kids to make games the same way Minecraft is fine if no one uses redstone. That being said it’s clear the team puts an incredible amount of effort in maintaining the developer experience. For example, here’s documentation for sending a message from a server to a game client.
- and look at the switch at the top, how mature APIs change by deprecating behavior!
I played Roblox a decade ago and it was an on-ramp to a lifelong love of everything computer science. I don’t think it’s the majority’s experience with the brand. But that’s my anecdote.
Thank you for sharing. I’m glad to hear that it sparked your interest in computer science. I imagine had I been a little younger when Minecraft came out (re Redstone) or young when Roblox came out I’d have been similarly enthralled by the possibles. I was in college when Minecraft came out and had been writing code for 3-4 years at that point so I felt things like Redstone to be limiting but as a kid I would have loved it.
Fun fact, Roblox already supported VR headsets on the PC in the past. It was janky and varied widely in comfort of the experience, but it technically worked. I think there are even still a few VR specific experiences out there.
Readit News
> Most of Roblox’s userbase is under 18, with about a third between 9 and 12. Emil, 11, tells People Make Games that he “saw other developers getting money in a way that looked easy.” It wasn’t easy. To withdraw money earned through microtransactions in a game, a developer must earn a minimum of 100,000 Robux, the platform’s in-game currency. Buying 100,000 Robux through Roblox’s store costs $1,000. Selling 100,000 Robux back to Roblox earns you just $350. Withdrawal is not even possible unless these developers pay a five-dollar monthly fee for a Roblox Premium Subscription. (Second Life and Entropia Universe, which also allow players to sell items, respectively have $10 and $100 minimums for withdrawing money.)
https://www.wired.com/story/on-roblox-kids-learn-its-hard-to...
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But it's Meta so of course, more users is better.
Am I way off base here or is that other people's view or experience of it?
The idea of it interests me and from what I know it's sort of a Minecraft meets endless mods-type of thing which is appealing to me overall (new Minecraft isn't interesting to me but the original was something I loved). I feel like if I were (much) younger Roblox might be where I spend an unhealthy amount of time but as it stands now it doesn't seem like a place for me.
I’d like to draw an analogy from redstone (Minecraft’s imitation of circuitry) to the ability to create games in Roblox. Both are incredibly accessible to beginners. Both can be a learning rabbit hole. And I think both have flowering communities of creators pushing each other forward.
I think today Roblox doesn’t need kids to make games the same way Minecraft is fine if no one uses redstone. That being said it’s clear the team puts an incredible amount of effort in maintaining the developer experience. For example, here’s documentation for sending a message from a server to a game client.
https://create.roblox.com/docs/reference/engine/classes/Remo...
Skimming this I see …
- a possible introduction to the actor model
- blocking behavior
- how to read signatures
- how to reason about the client/server model
- and look at the switch at the top, how mature APIs change by deprecating behavior!
I played Roblox a decade ago and it was an on-ramp to a lifelong love of everything computer science. I don’t think it’s the majority’s experience with the brand. But that’s my anecdote.
A large percentage of young kids in my extended friends and family play it.
Dead Comment
It's also a petri dish of pay-to-win mechanics that I suspect would make the app stores blush.